


It's The Summer of 2012

by literally_no_idea



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Minor Character Death, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Post-Avengers (2012)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-08 14:04:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18624748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literally_no_idea/pseuds/literally_no_idea
Summary: Yeah hi screw canon compliance I just want people to be happy.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> An alternate MCU where people are alive, happy, and each of the characters uses more than two (2) braincells at any given time so 98% of the bullshit of the MCU doesn't exist. Yeah. This is my happy-ever-after world let me live okay?

Someone knocks on one of the living room windows.

 

This wouldn’t be quite as weird if the window in question wasn’t a window to the Avengers tower communal floor living room, a window that happens to be 96 floors above the ground.

 

Pepper screams, Natasha pulls a knife out of seemingly nowhere, Tony reaches for the arc reactor, Clint and Rhodey take up defensive poses behind Natasha and Tony respectively, Thor summons Mjølnir, Steve lifts his arm before realizing that he doesn’t have the shield, and Bruce checks his pulse.

 

The entire team turns to face the window, where a man with what looks like a pair of mechanical wings has one hand gripping the shirt collar of a man with a metal arm and a mask over the lower half of his face.

 

“I’ve got a present for a Steve Rogers? Mind opening the front door?” The man with the wings yells, and the Avengers trade looks.

 

“Maybe soon, he’s really heavy!” Wings-guy says, and metal-arm-guy flips him off.

 

“It’s a trap,” Clint says immediately, and Steve nods.

 

“It might be. But I get the feeling they’re not going to leave, so let’s just get this over with. Suit up. Bruce, Ms. Potts, will you please find somewhere safe to hide? Hopefully we won’t need the Hulk.”

 

Bruce and Pepper nod, and everyone starts to move. Steve walks over to the window.

 

“We’ll meet you in the lobby,” he shouts through the window, and wing-guy gives him a thumbs up, descending toward the ground.

 

When the team reaches the lobby, both men from the window are standing outside the doors to the tower, and appear to be arguing. Tony and Steve walk up to the doors together, opening them.

 

“Welcome to the tower, we’d prefer if you didn’t snipe us,” Tony says cheerfully, and metal-arm-guy laughs.

 

“You know, that’s more accurate than you can even realize,” he says, and Steve’s eyes go wide.

 

“Bucky?”

 

Arm-guy takes the mask off, smiling. “Hey Stevie. Long time no see.”

 

* * *

 

“That’s a weird story, but based on Steve’s face and the fact that Tony hasn’t blasted either of you yet, I’m guessing everything checks out,” Rhodey says, turning to look at Tony, who nods.

“Yeah, I checked both of your files, and you definitely are who you say you are. While I’m not exactly thrilled that I’m going to have to pay to feed two supersoldiers now, I’m not overly concerned. Neither of you seems to be a threat.”

Bucky holds up a hand. “Uh, actually, about that.” Everyone turns back to him. “Well, from what I hear, Steve was frozen for seventy years? Yeah, the last seventy years haven’t been that easy on me. I’ve been kind of programmed to obey Hydra when they use a string of trigger words, and I don’t know what the words are.”

Tony shrugs. “We can fix that. I’m not exactly an expert in brainwashing or whatever, but I’m sure I can figure it out. Give me, I don’t know, a couple weeks? I’m assuming the words are in Russian, right? And something that couldn’t be said accidentally?” When Bucky nods, he continues. “Cool, then we just keep you in the tower until I can fix that. Good with you?”

Bucky nods. “Compared to the rest of my life, staying in a tower with a team of heroes and warm water sounds awesome.”

Tony grins. “Well that’s settled, then! How about you, Wilson, you sticking around?”

Sam shrugs. “I don’t know how much I can contribute to your team, but yeah, sure.”

Tony claps his hands together, standing up. “Alright! I’ll get both of you your own personal floors, if you want, let me know if there’s anything you want on them, jacuzzi, gym, that one Monet painting you’ve always wanted, doesn’t matter, I can probably make it happen. But for now, lunch! Everyone okay with Thai food?”

 

* * *

 

 

It takes a couple weeks for both Sam and Bucky to settle into their new floors, and in that time Tony studies hypnosis, brainwashing, and mental programming, doing various scans of Bucky’s brain and taking various blood samples that he and Bruce study together.

Four weeks after Bucky and Sam show up, Tony is pretty sure he’s figured out how to reverse the process, but there’s only one way to be sure.

“Hey Bucky,” he says as he enters the living room one day, “Do you happen to know if there’s a copy of your trigger words anywhere? Because I think I can reverse everything, but I’ll need to test the sequence afterwards to confirm that.”

Bucky nods. “Yeah, I think they’re in a bunker in Siberia. That’s the facility where I was held, so if it’s anywhere, it’s probably there.”

Tony grins. “Awesome! So who’s down for a trip to Siberia?”

Bucky and Steve both slowly raise their hands. “If you’re going after the trigger words, I’m probably your best chance at finding them, and Steve’s your best chance at controlling me if something goes wrong,” Bucky says, and Tony’s grin disappears.

“Yeah, okay, that’s fair. Anyway, shall we?”

“Tony, wait, I need to talk to you,” Steve says, and Tony frowns.

“Okay? What’s up?”

Steve fidgets, pulling Tony aside. “Look, uh, I need to tell you something, and it’s… well, it’s not going to be nice to hear. Just, obviously you know that Bucky was tortured and brainwashed, right?”

Tony nods slowly. “Uh-huh. Obviously. Why?”

Steve swallows hard. “Well, your parents didn’t die in a car wreck. Bucky was brainwashed and ordered to attack their car as part of a mission. Tony, I’m so sorry.”

Tony stiffens, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Christ, Rogers, give a guy some more warning next time, will you?” he says weakly, and Steve nods.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, I just. I didn’t know this was going to happen, and everything, so. But you deserved to know, before we go all the way to Siberia to help him. I understand if you don’t want to go now.”

Tony shakes his head. “No, it’s just… fuck, and I thought I was finally done with new personal traumas. I get it though. It’s not his fault. So it might be a little hard for me to look at him sometimes, but I’m not going to hate him for what was done to him. I can’t. Let’s just go see if we can undo the damage, yeah?”

Steve nods. “Yeah. Thanks, Tony.”

“Yeah. Well, come on, we’ve got a Quinjet to catch.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some more moments with Natasha, by request.
> 
> Note: I'm tired and my brain blanked on Pepper and Rhodey (how, I don't know, because I adore them both) but I'm also rolling with "Pepper and Rhodey don't live in the tower, Pepper works in the LA offices and Rhodey is usually on the Air Force base" so they're more in and out of the tower. Ye. This will probably change later? Because I want them around more and I love them. But for this chapter just bear with me.
> 
> Otherwise, enjoy!

Steve and Sam make everyone breakfast in the mornings, except for Thor, who seems to thrive entirely on poptarts. Everyone comes in from their various floors (or, as is often the case for Bruce and Tony, from their lab and workshop), gathering at the kitchen table.

 

Bucky and Natasha have just finished setting the table when Bucky frowns. “Where’s Clint? Usually he’s already here for the coffee,” he says, and Natasha shrugs.

 

“I’m pretty sure he fell asleep in the vents again, hold on, I’ll get him. JARVIS, where’s he at?”

 

“Agent Barton is in the vents above the communal floor living room, Agent Romanoff,” JARVIS answers, and Natasha nods.

 

“Cool. I’ll be right back.” She heads out to the living room, scaling the bookcase in the corner and lifting a panel in the vents, poking her head in. “Clint!”

 

There’s a muffled scream, some banging noises, and then one of the vent panels in the middle of the room falls, Clint flailing in a tangle of blankets before he hits the ground, groaning. “Nat, you’re the worst,” he whines, standing up and dusting himself off.

 

Natasha jumps down from the bookcase, walks over and pulls Clint toward the kitchen. “Yeah, whatever, you would have been heartbroken if you missed out on both coffee and Sam’s omelettes.”

 

Clint’s eyes go wide as he sits in the chair Natasha drags him over to. “Holy shit, you’re right, I’m not missing that for anything. But coffee now, talk later.” Natasha sets a cup of coffee in front of him, and he chugs half of it in one gulp, sighing. “Coffee.”

 

Tony and Bruce stumble into the kitchen, both of them clearly having worked late into the night on one project or another. “Coffee,” both men groan almost in sync with each other, and Nat and Bucky roll their eyes.

 

“Idiots, I swear,” Bucky says, and Natasha nods.

 

“Yeah, total dumbasses. But they’re ours,” she says, smiling softly as she gets two more cups of coffee ready for the geniuses. She’s just set the cups in front of the two men, Bucky getting Clint’s second cup, when Thor comes in, grinning.

 

“Friends! Are the tarts of pop ready?” He asks, and Steve hands him a plate piled high with poptarts of various flavors.

 

“Breakfast is almost ready for the rest of us,” Sam says, and there’s a few mumbled acknowledgements from the still under caffeinated people at the table.

 

It’s not until breakfast is actually served and Clint has finished his fourth cup of coffee that any conversation starts.

 

“So, what are we doing today?” Clint asks, and everyone trades looks, shrugging.

 

Now that he’s had his third cup of coffee, Tony is finally starting to perk up a little. “I think we have the day off? No one has meetings today, so would anyone want to make it a game and movies day?”

 

“How do you know that none of us have meetings today?” Sam asks, one eyebrow raised, and Tony shrugs.

 

“Uh, hello? Tech genius with a sentient AI? I hacked S.H.I.E.L.D., obviously. And I keep tabs on everyone’s activity, because I need to know where you all are in case something happens, we are not going to have a situation where we need to assemble and we’re short handed.”

 

A few minutes of silence while everyone processes this.

 

“Yeah, okay, that’s fair. A little frightening, but fair. I’m glad you’re on our side,” Sam says grudgingly.

 

Tony grins. “Great, with that settled. Games and movies?”

 

“I would like to play that ‘Ooh-No’ game you have talked about,” Thor says, and Natasha laughs.

 

“You mean ‘Uno,’ Thor. Yeah, why not?”

 

* * *

 

The answer to ‘why not’ is that Thor is an absolutely terrible loser, Clint is a damn good cheater, and Sam is far more competitive than anyone could have expected.

 

“This is madness!” Thor shouts, Sam and Clint wrestling on the floor behind him as Sam tries to ‘figure out where he’s hiding those damn +4 cards.’

 

Natasha sighs, standing up from where she had comfortably tucked her legs up onto her seat and walks over to Sam and Clint, dragging the two of them apart.

 

“Stand down, you absolute bird shits,” she says, glaring at each of them with a look that causes Clint to flinch and Sam to stand a little taller.

 

“Or what?” Sam asks her, and Clint hasn’t even had a chance to warn him against that course of action when Natasha moves too fast for anyone to catch exactly what she does, only to find Sam on his back on the floor with Natasha’s foot on his chest.

 

“Or ‘Uno’ will also be an accurate description of the number of limbs you have,” she hisses, and Sam gulps, raising his hands in surrender.

 

“Okay, sorry.”

 

Thor, watching from a few feet away, sits back down in his own chair. “I’d like to revoke any statements I’ve made in recent minutes,” he says, and Natasha nods.

 

“Good call. So, does anyone want to watch Bambi instead?”

 

There’s nods around the kitchen table, and everyone quietly heads towards the living room, only Natasha and Sam staying behind to make popcorn.

 

“Better make a bunch, Steve and Bucky’s metabolisms are scary fast,” Sam says, and Natasha laughs.

 

“Yeah, well, we’ve also got a high performance team of heroes, so I’m pretty sure most of us eat more than the average person anyway.”

 

“Still, those two eat more in one day than the rest of us combined,” Sam says as he puts the first bag of popcorn in the microwave.

 

Natasha digs through the pantry for more popcorn. “True. But at least they’re pretty enough to make up for the food expenses.”

 

Sam laughs. “Good point, good point. Let’s just get the popcorn done so we can go take the snacks to the snacks.”

 

* * *

 

After the movie, everyone heads to bed. Even Tony and Bruce head to bed rather than to their workshop and lab, both yawning and mumbling about “missed opportunities” and “breakthroughs to make.”

 

Bucky and Sam each head to their own floors, Clint grabs his blanket and the vent panel that were still on the floor from earlier that morning and climbs back into the vents, and Natasha and Steve clean up the last of the popcorn and drinks everyone had left behind.

 

“You know you don’t have to do all of this for us,” Steve says casually as they wash and dry dishes, “We’re perfectly capable of caring for ourselves, oddly enough.”

 

Natasha smiles, putting away the last dry plate while Steve dries his hands. “I know. I’ve just never really had a family before, and it’s nice to be able to take care of one, even if it’s a family of selfless and self-sacrificing heroes instead of a bunch of kids. Though I will say, you all make enough messes to be kids.”

 

Steve laughs as they walk to the elevator together. “That’s fair. Thank you, Nat.”

 

“Sure thing, Steve. See you tomorrow?”

 

Steve nods as he gets off on his floor. “See you tomorrow. Good night.”

 

“Good night.” Natasha heads back to her own floor, and falls asleep humming Russian lullabies to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what else you'd like to see! You can also talk to me on tumblr [ here](https://mbarku.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Yell at me with ideas/complaints/questions/anything over on my marvel tumblr blog [ @mbarku](https://mbarku.tumblr.com/)


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